CVE-2026-91863: Apache Neethi: Uncontrolled recursion while parsing crafted WS-Policy documents allows denial of service

Severity: high (CVSS 7.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.8% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-09-21 · updated 2026-09-24
Weakness: CWE-674

Description

A specially crafted WS-Policy document with deeply nested policy elements can bypass Neethi's nesting-depth limit and exhaust the thread stack, crashing the parser (denial of service). Users are recommended to upgrade to version 3.2.4, which fixes this issue.

Affected products

Apache Software Foundation Apache Neethi: before 3.2.4 — fixed in 3.2.4

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Apache Software Foundation Apache Neethi 3.2.4. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

https://lists.apache.org/thread/72kxj71lvrqqx90xxqqctvpbw0t8mpxw
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/09/18/10

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